History of the Snowman/Woman
The history of the snow man or snow woman is unknown. But, I have to say this. Whoever the first person was to think to form snow into a human figure was a genius. For untold years thereafter, children and adults alike have been thrilled and received joy in making and watching others make snowmen, err women. You know what I mean.
At any rate, what is remarkable is that no one has ever thought of, or at least reduced to practice, a way to make snow people easy and fun. I have done an abbreviated patent search and there is nothing relating to the subject of creating a snowman. Unbelievable since it is so much fun and considering the effort involved. But, if no one has thought of it, well, no one has thought of it.
Making a snow man is hard work. As an old pro, I know what a pain in the back it is to roll a snow boulder around a yard. As the snow boulder grows, it gets exponentially difficult. So if you want to make a real big snow man, like me, you wind up breaking your back.
If you're like me, you enjoy building snow men . . . big. The bigger the better. One problem is there isn't always someone around to help. It is very difficult by yourself. Over the years, I have developed different tricks to assist my self-style of building snow people. My favorite trick is to use the long end of a shovel as a lever to rotate the boulder when it is really big. With this trick, you can keep rolling the boulder a precious few feet and get the boulder really big.
Another trick I have considered is to start rolling the snow ball on top of a hill or on a slope and work downward as the boulder gets bigger. Even though this works relatively well, it's still hard work to get the boulder to be really big. Besides this, you may wind up with an uncontrollable rolling snow avalanche.
But building a bigger boulder belies an even greater mischief. That is, getting the torso on top. Of course, you would want the torso to be proportional to the oversized boulder you have already created, so the torso has to be fairly large as well. Now, the boulder is pretty heavy. Compacted snow is virtually like ice! And you have to lift the darn thing a good four feet. Now this is really back breaking.
Not to mention that now you have to put the head on top. All of this is pretty difficult even for an adult (or big kid) like myself. What is more, I really cannot build a bigger snow man than about my height. The boulder is just too heavy. Just consider how a kid, who would love to build a big snow man/woman, would have no chance without adult help.
I have tinkered with the concept of building a ramp in order to roll the torso boulder on top of the base boulder. I have tried to make a wooden ramp, but the wood proved to be too flimsy to hold the heavy weight. I then considered building the ramp out of snow. But the boulder is just too darn heavy and squashes the snow down. And building such a ramp requires a lot of time, and snow, which you don't always have.
You never realized there were so many hurdles in building a snow man did you? Well, here is another. Getting the snow man/woman in the precise perfect place. Let's say you want the snow man right in front of the house door. Well, gravity has a lot to say about that. If your house, like most houses are built up to provide drainage, it becomes a serious physical effort, as well as logistical challenge, to roll the boulder to the right spot.
Another thing has always bothered me when I have built snow people. You can never make a perfect snow man. The snow balls are never, and I mean never, perfectly round. They are always lop-sided and look sort of goofy.
There is a construction problem, as well, related to the non-uniformity of the snow balls. Namely, it is difficult, particularly with large snow men, to balance another snow ball or boulder on top without it toppling over. To make matters worse, the third ball or boulder on top is made even more difficult to balance on a bust that is already tipsy.
Another problem in the art is that there is often not enough snow. With the first snow fall of the winter, ushers into each of us elatement and joy of running outside and playing in the snow. Unfortunately, all of this enthusiasm is lost on a lack of snow. The first snow fall usually never sticks. We can also drag in global warming here as a culprit for seemingly declining snow levels. But this patent attorney won't reach that far. The point is, wouldn't it be great if we could build a snow man of decent size with relatively less or little snow fall.
Last but not least, one must consider that the snow person is subjected to warmer temperatures and will melt. It will settle as the weight of its own snow compacts in on itself and deform, possible falling over. Adornments placed on the snow man will tend to loosen and fall out. Happy smiles fade into frowns. Eyes get droopy. Wind will blow away hats, scarves and other accoutrements. Finally, there is terminality. You have to do all of that back breaking work again if a warm snap comes and melts your snow man.
Of course, all of the problems of making snow men/women is part of what makes it fun. Getting a whole group of people around and working together; being outside in the snow for hours; and, yes, having a doofy lop-sided snow man does have some charm. And even if you don't have enough snow, who cares anyway.
That may be true. But we are living in the 21st century now. We have created the Internet. China is getting ready to send a person to the moon. And we invented silly putty, perhaps one of the all-time greatest inventions a big kid ever invented. Can't somebody build a better snow man?
So then the flash of genius strikes me. What if? What if someone could make a snow boulder that was light weight. So light, it could be easily handled so that it could be made really big and still be easily moved, or even carried, even by a youngster. A snow boulder light enough to be easily placed on top of another boulder. Or light enough even to be easily positioned in that perfect place in your yard?
What if someone could make a snow boulder that was perfectly symmetrical, so that it could easily balance on top of another similar boulder. A symmetrical boulder that could form a perfect looking snow man? How cool would that look in front of your house during the holidays?
What if someone could make a snow boulder that is perfect every time. A snow man that could be replicated so that it looks the same each time, each year. Or rebuilt from the old snow man/woman in a matter of moments.
What if someone could make that out of a light weight, abundant material that is cheap and is practically used in all toys?
What if a really big snow man could be built utilizing the bare minimum of snow? What if?
Today is that day.